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RIYADH — Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi yesterday criticized people who reject the idea of Arab and Saudi women working as maids in Saudi households.

“We are a society which is full of guardians,” Al-Gosaibi told reporters while answering a question about a proposal to have Egyptian housemaids in Saudi homes, as suggested by the Egyptian minister of labor.

“The Prophet (peace be upon him) said that all of you are guardians and that every guardian is responsible for his family. He did not say all of you are guardians for entire society,” said Al-Gosaibi.

The minister, who was surrounded by reporters when he met officials from Saudi Arabia’s governmental rights watchdog, the Human Rights Commission (HRC), said his ministry could not interfere if Saudi women, due to difficult financial conditions, wished to work as cleaners and cooks in people’s homes.

Saudis sponsor over 1.5 million foreign maids, the majority from southeast Asia. Even though the issue of needy Saudi women working in Saudi households was brought to the ministry’s attention in the past, conservative elements in society rejected the idea.

“I see that any job, whatever it may be, is an agreement between an employer and the employee. It is a matter of accepting and refusing. If there is a woman whose circumstances force her to work in a kitchen for a few hours and she accepts the payment, then I cannot come and say, ‘How could Saudi women take such jobs?’ Our mothers and grandmothers used to do such jobs. And they still do in the Bedouin culture,” he added. “The ministry or any other concerned authority has no business if a woman is satisfied with her payment. And I have no right to say that a Saudi woman should not be dubbed a ‘housemaid.’”

Regarding proposals to establish recruitment companies that would provide citizens laborers on hourly or daily bases, the minister said a royal decree had already been issued to study the matter.

He added that recruitment companies, however, did not show any enthusiasm over the proposal and preferred to maintain the status quo.

“We have decided to prepare a list of conditions and requirements for such companies, as well as define their role. We will then send that to the Council of Ministers for approval,” he said, adding that businessmen can then apply to establish new recruitment companies.

“These companies will offer labor services on a part-time or daily basis. We hope that a lot of the problems related to runaway laborers and non-paying sponsors would be solved with the establishment of these companies,” he said.

Al-Gosaibi said the Labor Ministry would not intervene if labor exporting countries chose to raise the wages of their nationals coming to work in the Kingdom. “It is not my business to interfere if a country decides to raise the price of recruitment. I cannot simply threaten to ban them. This is not ethically, legally, or civilly acceptable,” he said, adding that people can simply hire cheaper labor from other countries.

On the issue of women-only shops, which had previously been supported and then stopped by the ministry, Al-Gosaibi said the matter was still being studied. “We are keen on implementing this. However, we have given up the ‘deadline initiative,’” he said, adding that the initiative was misunderstood by many.

The minister also ruled out the idea of his ministry paying unemployment benefits to Saudi citizens. He said that this would only encourage people to remain at home and increase inflation.

“We should not begin where others have finished,” he said. “Many countries are now regretting giving dole to the unemployed. Six countries in the European Union have even reduced dole by half.”

Al-Gosaibi said Saudi nationals have no excuse for being unemployed and that people can get training, leading to employment. He said that companies pay between SR1,500 and SR2,000 during training. “The Human Resources Development Fund will then pay half of the salary once a person finishes training,” he added.

“Training is more dignified than staying at home. It would also increase a person’s chances of developing his skills. If every Saudi was determined to train there would not be a single unemployed person in the country.”

Regarding a proposal to merge the Labor Ministry with the Ministry of Civil Services, Al-Gosaibi said preliminary committees were still studying the matter. “The committees will also take into account the experiences of other countries,” he said, adding that it was a complicated issue that needed careful study.

This minister is trying to bring the Saudis out of their jahil, arrogant and lazy ways, and so he has been called names ("liberal", "anti-saudi", etc.) for saying things (like arab women working as maids and no unemployment for lazy saudis) that Saudis don't like or want to hear. After all it is a lot easier to not pay and abuse non-Arab maids and to sit at home and collect unemployment.

US embassies in the Persian Gulf states are using low-level staff whose employers illegally confiscate their passportsand provide them with poor living conditions.

An internal US State Department report says employers who provide gardeners, maids, cooks and local guards to embassies in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates put the workers at risk of human trafficking.

Over three-quarters of the scores of workers at the embassies in question told investigators that they were forced to pay fees to get their jobs, which for more than 25 percent of them was equal to over a year of their salary, AP reported.

Some workers also told investigators they had not been paid wages.

All of the surveyed contractors held the passports of their workers, who were mostly from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Also, more than 70 percent of the workers said they lived in overcrowded, unsafe or unsanitary conditions.

The report added that though none of the embassies or contractors are technically violating US laws, but "the practices of some contractors negatively affect foreign workers and reflect poorly on the department."

DHAHRAN: Longtime expatriates have expressed shock and dismay at revelations concerning worker abuse by companies contracted to the US Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Dhahran.

The shocking details were revealed in a declassified US State Department report that was made public on Monday through its website. It also covered other Gulf states. Hours after the publication in Arab News of a story based on the report, it was made remarkably difficult to access.

Arab News downloaded the report in a PDF format on Tuesday by logging onto the State Department website and typing “Saudi Arabia” in the search bar.

The report, which carries the title, “Performance Evaluation of Department of State Contracts to Assess the Risk of Trafficking in Persons Violations in Four States in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf,” came up in an instant.

That, however, was not the case on Wednesday. The same search string brought up a link to an innocuous report on G20 trade and investment measures.

There was no trace of the damning report on contractual worker abuse. It could only be accessed by punching in the exact number of the report (156263) in the search bar on the website.

A British expatriate contacted Arab News to say that he was having trouble accessing the report. When told that he needed to punch in the exact report number, the expatriate expressed his frustration and hung up.

Certain claims in the State Department report has been echoed by stories in the local media.

Large labor-intensive companies in the Kingdom, especially in the construction field, have long stopped hiring labor themselves and have instead taken to relying on manpower suppliers to provide them with cheap contractual labor.

Some of these contracting companies have reportedly abused their workers and undercut their salaries with a view to maximizing their profits. For instance, if a contracting company gets SR2,000 for an employee, it passes only 40 percent of that amount to the laborer.

From the companies’ point of view, it makes sense because they do not have to worry about labor cases, end-of-service disputes, medical insurance and low salaries.

All that is taken care of by the contractors and subcontractors and if something terrible happens, it is the contractors who are held accountable.

The American missions in Saudi Arabia have similarly tasked the job of carrying out menial tasks to contracting companies.

Until the report was made public, it was assumed that the workers, especially gardeners, maids, cooks and local guards, were not the responsibility of the US missions. The report makes it absolutely clear that the mission is as responsible for the wellbeing of those working at their missions as the contractors and subcontractors.

In the report by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), it was revealed that in Riyadh, the embassy’s 19 gardeners shared a dilapidated apartment building with numerous fire and safety hazards.

Exposed, frayed wiring was visible throughout the building, said the report, adding that the walls, floors, ceilings, molding and stairs had extensive water damage from a leaking water tank on the building’s roof and pipes in the walls.

During the site visit, OIG observed open wiring throughout the workers’ apartment building and water trickling down walls of the five bedrooms the workers shared.

“The living room is filled with boxes, bicycles, and other second-hand or salvaged items…The kitchen is dirty and workers also note an infestation of insects,” it said. “Of the apartment building’s three bathrooms, only one has a working sink. One bathroom has a working shower, but a broken toilet and an uncovered floor drain. A washing machine in the third bathroom makes it difficult to access the toilet.” The report supported its observations with pictures.

Bonnie Gutman, a spokesman at the US Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News that they are working to integrate the findings of the report into their operations and planning. “We strive to ensure that our embassies and consulates remain in compliance with the laws and regulations that prohibit these kind of practices,” said Gutman.

A French expatriate said he was shocked beyond words.

“This is unbelievable,” he said. “Yes, we know that there are companies here that are using cheap subcontract labor. But the US embassy? They must have known it,” he said.

“If they were a private operator in the US, they would be prosecuted. There, companies have to answer for the actions of their subcontractors. If a US company buys goods from a Chinese manufacturer that turn out to be made by child labor, it can be prosecuted,” he pointed out.

“Claiming ignorance won’t work,” he said. “It has a legal obligation to know what its subcontractors are doing.”

The French expat referred to the recent BP catastrophe. “BP did not own or operate the oil rig that caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico and caused such a disaster. It belonged to a subcontractor. But because it was working for BP, BP was held responsible by the US government,” he said. “It is the same here. It was the duty of the embassy to know the employment conditions of people who were working in the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Dhahran.”

Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, a retired Royal Saudi Navy commodore, said when he heard about the exploitation of workers at the American Embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Dhahran, the first thing that came to his mind was that they were not paid their overtime dues.

“It turned out to be far worse,” he told Arab News. “We are talking here about miserable living conditions and passport confiscations…This is a serious issue, especially since the US embassies and consulates all over the world miss no opportunity to harangue and castigate the host countries when something less severe than this comes up. What is sauce for the goose has to be sauce for the gander.”

A Saudi Arabian princess is accused of “slavery” after a woman who was allegedly held against her will as a domestic servant escaped from a three-story building, flagged down a bus and alerted authorities in Irvine

The victim, a 30-year-old maid from Kenya, and four other women from the Philippines, were allegedly being held by Saudi national Meshael Alayban, who is accused of stealing their passports and work contracts and forcing them to work long hours with little pay, according to Lt. Julia Engen of the Irvine Police Department.

Police arrested Alayban Wednesday morning.

All five women are in good health and there are no indications of physical abuse, officials said.

Alayban, a 42-year-old mother of three, is accused of slavery by authorities.

She likely will be the first person prosecuted in Orange County under California’s Proposition 35, which raised the penalty of human trafficking after voters approved it last November.

“The laws of our nation and California do not tolerate people who deprive or violate the liberty of another and obtain forced labor or services,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement issued by the Irvine Police Department.

Alayban first hired the Kenyan native in March 2012 to work at her home in Saudi Arabia, Engen said. They had signed a two-year contract guaranteeing the worker would be paid $1,600 a month. In May 2013, Alayban and her family moved to Irvine with the victim, who cooked, cleaned, and washed laundry for eight people. Authorities say the victim was working 16 hours a day for $220 a month – a fraction of what they agreed upon.

After searching Alayban’s residence, police discovered that five workers were all being held at the home.

The suspect owns multiple condominiums in the area which she and her extended family reside in, Engen said.

When police asked the captive women if they wanted to leave with them, they all said yes. Authorities are helping them find a place to stay.

Police are searching for the workers’ missing travel documents, which they believe are in a safety deposit box at a local bank.

Alayban's attorney, Paul S. Meyer, indicated in a statement, however, that the incident is essentially a labor dispute.

Meyer told the court during the bail hearing that "the police report confirms that there was no physical abuse, no physical restraint, and that the complaints were about hours worked and wages paid," according to his statement.

"We intend to fully investigate all facts, and expect that the truth will resolve this matter," Meyer's statement said.

On Thursday a Saudi princess accused of human trafficking posted $5 million bail and was freed.

The princess, 42-year-old Meshael Alayban, is one of six wives of Saudi Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

The case was met with shock and outrage in Irvine, a city famous as a melting pot of many cultures. But experts and law enforcement officials said that in Saudi Arabia, the servant's working arrangement is fairly commonplace.

Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of Islamic law at UCLA, said servants are treated so poorly for so long "that they become completely docile, the Saudi employer cannot imagine them as anyone who has free will, so they comfortably view them as part of the baggage and bring them to the U.S. or Europe."

Savage burns in Facebook picture allegedly caused when Filipina took too long to make coffee

Gulf News Report | May 22, 2014

A horrific picture of a Filipina maid left savagely burned after her Saudi boss allegedly threw boiling water on her has been posted on Facebook by her cousin.
The maid’s employer was punishing her for not making coffee quickly enough.The 23 year old maid only received treatment in a Riyadh hospital hours later, when she was able to get nurses to call her cousin for help.

She is now being cared for by The Philippine Embassy, the Mail has reported.

The scalding happened because her employer’s mother was angry at not getting her coffee quickly enough, according to ABS-CBN News.

The Facebook post read: “This is my cousin, who works as a domestic helper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,” according to the Mail.

“Her female Saudi employer poured boiling water on her. She has only been in Riyadh for two months.

“She was beaten up within five days of her arrival by her male employer and was sometimes deprived of food.

“She was only taken to the hospital six hours after boiling water was poured on her.

“She was then taken home to continue working despite her extensive injuries.”

While at hospital, Palacasi was able to reach a relative who lives in Riyadh who helped her sneak out of hospital.

The cousin then posted graphic photos of Palacasi's wounds on Facebook, showing bright pink and white scalded skin all over her back, the backs of her arms, and parts of her leg, according to the ministry statement.

The Philippines government said it would help Palacasi file a case against her employer and has suspended the work of the Saudi recruitment agency that hired her.

The English-language Saudi daily Arab News reported Wednesday that Riyadh police were conducting a joint investigation of the case.

Palacasi alleges that her employer began physically abusing her within days of her arrival, kicking and lashing her after she complained of being homesick. She also claimed her employers deprived her of food.

"[My employer's mother] asked me to throw away all the leftover food but I didn't do it so that when I got hungry I could have something to eat," Palacasi said in a cellphone video reportedly taken by her cousin and released to ABS-CBN, a CNN affiliate in the Philippines.

"Please help me," Palacasi says in the video. "Help me file a case against my employer. I suffered a lot."

Palacsi is currently at an embassy shelter in Riyadh. "She is stable, in high spirits, and is relating well with fellow [Filipino workers]" according to the government statement.

MAKKAH — A Saudi nurse at Hera General Hospital had her leg broken by six women, Makkah daily reported.

The women were related to a patient she was looking after, hospital sources told the newspaper.

Jumeah Mishal Al-Otaibi, the nurse, said she was asked by the patient’s son to remove the tape on the ventilator’s tube, which, according to the son, was not secured properly and causing harm to his mother.

She explained to the son that she should call the doctor first.

The moment she got into her office and pick up the phone to make the call, the son was right in front of her, she said.

Furious, he started racially abusing Al-Otaibi.

“He told me he would beat me up if I were a man,” she said.

He then left and returned shortly after with two of his sisters who started cursing Al-Otaibi.

“I asked them to be polite and told them they could take up their complaint with the doctor.

“They did not listen to a word I said.”

Suddenly, the two women jumped on Al-Otaibi and started beating her while one of them tried to remove her headscarf.

“All this happened in front of the other nurses and the security guard, who all stood there watching,” she said.

Just when she thought they would stop, another four women, related to the patient, also started assaulting her.

One of them trampled on Al-Otaibi’s left leg, breaking it.

A female security guard said the women attacked the nurse in front of the supervising doctor, who did not do anything.

Police officers eventually broke up the fight.

Al-Otaibi was rushed to Al-Zahir Hospital where she was treated for a leg fracture and contusions.

The fact the security guards stood there and doctors didn't intervene or anyone else for that matter shows the state of affairs in the saudi kingdom where the dumb arabs think they are better than others. They think just like the zinoists, thinking they are above others. Being cousins and from same family i guess it runs in the family to be arrogant and ethnocentric.

Hera Nurse: This is the dilemma nowadays as a healthcare provider no one will protect us. no one will help

Anon: Rascism in the KSA rearing its ugly head again. Saudia Arabia needs to acknowledge and tackle this problem and instill in their citizens that they are not superior to any other human being from around the world be they black, white or blue! Stop idolising the West and follow the teachings of the Prophet (pbuh). Remember an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab .

Eight Abu Dhabi princesses have been convicted of human trafficking over the way they treated servants in a luxury hotel at Brussels.

The women were handed 15-month suspended sentences for human trafficking and degrading treatment at a court in the Belgian capital.

They were acquitted of the more serious charge of inhuman treatment but also ordered to pay a fine of 165,000 euros (£145,000), with half the sum suspended.

The princesses, who are from Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family, did not appear in court.

Defence lawyer Stephen Monod said he was pleased the case was finally resolved after nearly a decade. He said in a statement: 'Belgian justice has appropriately assessed this case which has generated many misconceptions'

The case was brought after a servant of the family slipped out of the hotel where the women stayed for several months in 2007 and 2008 and filed a report to Belgian police.

Police raided the then Conrad Hotel in 2008 where princess Sheikha Hamda Al-Nahyan, 64, and her seven daughters had rented the entire 4th floor for a few months.

They were alleged to have had people working round the clock, forcing some to sleep on the floor.

The princesses did not appear in court, only their legal representatives.